Diogo Freitas do Amaral

Diogo Freitas do Amaral (21 July 1941-3 October 2019) was Prime Minister of Portugal from 4 December 1980 to 9 January 1981, succeeding Francisco de Sa Carneiro and preceding Francisco Pinto Balsemao. He was a co-founder of the CDS - People's Party.

Biography
Diogo Freitas do Amaral was born in Povoa de Varzim, Portugal in 1941, and he came from a political family. He worked as a law professor before becoming involved in Christian democratic politics as co-founder of the CDS - People's Party in 1974, leading it until 1985, serving on the Council of State from 1974 to 1982, as Foreign Minister from 1980 to 1981, and as acting Prime Minister from 1980 to 1981. He narrowly lost the 1986 presidential election to Mario Soares, and he later left his own party due to its increasingly Eurosceptic tendencies. Freitas do Amaral, a right-winger, supported the Social Democratic Party of Portugal until it supported the United States during the Iraq War, upon which he surprisingly endorsed the Socialist Party of Portugal and served as their Foreign Minister from 2005 to 2006.